How AI is accelerating innovation in agriculture

Find out how CNH's AI and tech strategy are accelerating innovation for farmers globally and scroll down to read a Q&A with an expert from Purdue University.

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CNH’s global strategy is turning data into decisions and agricultural machinery into intelligent collaborators, empowering farmers across the world with effortless and streamlined technology tailored to their needs

Over the past decade, artificial intelligence (AI) has become a quietly powerful force in agriculture, making the farmer’s experience smoother and smarter. On modern combines, tractors and sprayers, AI systems now make complex decisions in real time, such as adjusting settings, guiding vehicles and improving yields.

“For many years our combines have had AI features and our farmers might not even know about it,” says Francesca Protano, Head of Technology Strategy and Product Innovation at CNH. “That means we did a very good job. And it is not by chance that our customers can rely on the best combine harvesters available on the market today.”

Now, as AI systems grow more capable and customer expectations rise, those invisible improvements are entering a new phase. With better processing power, more structured datasets and increasing industry pressure to do more with less, CNH is embedding AI into more machines, speeding up product development and shifting from precision farming to full autonomy and robotics.

“We are in the third wave of AI,” says Protano, “where things are moving from promising pilots to genuinely effective tools.” This wave is defined not just by capability, but also by speed, scale and sustainability. And agriculture is feeling the urgency.

Francesca Protano, Head of Technology Strategy and Product Innovation at CNH.

Fragmented data, legacy systems, rising pressure

Agriculture is one of the world’s oldest industries, and CNH has been supporting farmers through innovation and engineering for over 180 years. But today they face some of the most urgent pressures. Climate change, labor shortages and shifting regulatory frameworks are forcing farmers to get smarter about solving their problems. AI offers one solution but scaling it across a global and fragmented industry is no simple task.

At CNH, part of the challenge lies in managing the Company’s own diversity. Over the past two decades, it has grown through major acquisitions across regions, product lines and engineering cultures. “We collect a lot of data,” says Protano, “but in different formats and often of variable types. We work a lot on data quality to make it usable.”

Creating a common data asset is just the first step. Reliable AI also demands high-performance computing, seamless integration and widespread user trust, especially in rural areas where connectivity is inconsistent. “In agriculture, connectivity is one of the tricky points,” says Protano. “Farmers typically work in areas where internet coverage is unreliable or non-existent.”

CNH is setting up a number of partnerships to tackle this issue, allowing farmers working in the remotest regions of the world to take advantage of the latest technology. In May 2025, for example, the Company announced an agreement with Starlink, a subsidiary of SpaceX, to offer farmers robust and affordable high-speed satellite connectivity, maximizing the potential of its precision technology and improving data streaming capabilities.

Embedding intelligence, extending capability

Despite the challenges, CNH’s AI strategy is delivering results. The goal is not to replace the farmer, but to extend their capabilities by making machines smarter, tasks easier and operations more resource-efficient and environmentally responsible. “We are reducing the effort,” says Protano. “If you make it seamless and transparent, the feedback from farmers is really positive.”

These innovations include SenseApply TM, sprayer automation technology which uses machine vision to identify weeds and automatically applies treatment only where needed. This “green-on-brown” technology was developed through CNH’s acquisition of Greek start-up Augmenta. Recent research reveals it can deliver significant savings and return on investment as well as reduce herbicide application.

Vision-guided steering, meanwhile, is applied on tractors in vineyards, enabling the vehicle to turn at the end of each row without human input, even in areas with poor GPS coverage.

From a farmer’s perspective, the appeal is straightforward: less waste, lower cost, better results, and less reliance on manpower, helping to overcome labor shortages. And, Protano notes, farmers like the simplicity. “The less input they give, the happier they are. If the machine does it for them, they see the benefit.”

If you make it seamless and transparent, the feedback from farmers is really positive

Case IH Brings Purposefully Designed, Farmer-First Precision Tech Solutions to Streamline Farm Management.

The acceleration effect: faster cycles, smarter systems

For CNH, AI is not just transforming what its brands’ machines do, it’s changing how fast they get built. “AI can certainly accelerate the development of innovative features,” says Protano. “It can improve development cycle and testing cycle.”

This acceleration is partly powered by generative AI, which now assists in coding CNH’s software modules. It’s also driven by field data collected from sensors, uploaded to cloud platforms and looped back into product design. That data doesn’t just support engineers; it sometimes reveals what customers need and how they are using machines in ways the designers didn’t anticipate, prompting new features or models.

Ultimately, AI allows CNH to serve more varied customers across more geographies with more relevant tools. That might mean specialty equipment that replaces hand-weeding with machine learning, or automation that helps new operators work more effectively with less training.

From smart machines to sustainable growth

CNH’s AI strategy is not a sudden pivot, but a cumulative shift, layering smarter tools onto a base of existing capabilities, structured data and a global user base. It’s a strategy designed to be flexible, regionally relevant and applicable to a variety of technologies. Rather than locking into one solution that fits all, CNH is intentionally working with a range of cloud and software partners to keep its architecture adaptable.

Whether it’s sprayers that detect weeds or tractors that navigate without GPS, CNH is using AI to rethink how machines work and how quickly they can evolve. As Protano puts it, “We are already in the wave. Now it’s about how fast we can go.”

We are already in the wave. Now it's about how fast we can go

I often say, in these early stages, AI is like an adviser earning your trust. If I meet someone with great credentials, I still make sure they’re doing the right thing. Treat AI the same way.